Thursday, January 30, 2019: The two-men preparation team has been in Kenya for one week now, laying out the technological groundwork. One of the earlier steps was having “Nice View Reporter” shirts printed in Mombasa to give to the students. So far (and maybe a tiny bit to our surprise) everything has been going according to plan.
In Msambweni, we have set up Internet connection via the (reliable!) 4G network, laid 50 meters of network cables, and connected the school’s computers via a network switch. Nine computers that are connected to the Internet and equipped with the necessary programs are now available for the students to work with. While this is certainly no hard physical labor, you can tell that it’s 30°C when looking at our technician.
Friday, the rest of our team will arrive in Kenya. Once the team is complete, we’ll be seven adults and one child in our accommodation in Mbuyu. We use the weekend for last preparations: we take a tour of the Nice View premises, including the residential buildings, the school, and the farm. And, most importantly, we discuss our complex schedules with the headmaster and the teachers – who, confidently, assure us that it’s all gonna work out fine.
This is the first time for the primary school students to do journalistic work. Which is why they are just as excited as we are for the workshops – and for the investigative reports that they will write afterwards. Beyond this, we are confident that the project will teach the children how to critically approach media – and also motivate them to make full use of its potential.
We’re excited to start on Monday!
